The Structure of Subjective Reward Values Differs Between Children and Adults

Reward is a fundamental concept in psychological research and is mostly applied in the context of learning and motivation. Various reward types (e.g., money and snacks) are used in psychological experiments for different receivers such as children and adults. Most previous psychological and neuroscientific studies have assessed the subjective value of rewards in adult populations but only a few have systematically examined this issue in children. In this registered report, we examined how children subjectively evaluated different types of rewards and whether their subjective values differed from those of adults. Participants were presented with primary non-social rewards (snacks), secondary non-social rewards (money), and social rewards (praise and social media “thumbs-up”) at different magnitudes and rated how happy they would be to receive each reward on a four-point scale. Overall, preschool children assigned relatively similar values to different rewards, whereas school-aged children and adults showed more differentiated patterns of reward valuation. Reward magnitude systematically affected subjective values in all age groups, such that larger magnitudes were evaluated more positively. Finally, analyses of the structure of reward values indicated that the structures of subjective reward values differed between children and adults. These findings clarify how subjective reward valuation develops across childhood and highlight developmental changes in both the differentiation and structural organization of reward values. This Stage 2 Registered Report is based on a Stage 1 protocol that received in-principle acceptance on 7th July 2025 by PCI Registered Reports (https://osf.io/uq379/overview).